Taste of antiquity — One makes nutmeg by grinding dried seeds of the Myristica tree family from the “Spice Islands” of Indonesia. Drying takes two months, and we use its inner seed. Cuisines across Earth use it to season both savory and sweet dishes. The warm flavor enhances eggnog, processed meat dishes, and even confections. In addition, nutmeg oil possesses antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties, and this proves helpful in dentistry.

A cousin of the onion — Humans have cultivated garlic since the Babylonians in 4500 BCE. They traded it from Iran to China and India simultaneously, and its popularity persists. Find garlic mentioned in myths like warding off vampires. Cuisines and medicinal traditions worldwide include garlic and its flavor profile changes when cooked. One potential treatment for drug-resistant infection exists in the medieval Anglo medical guide, Bald’s Leechbook. Modern doctors resurrected this, finding that it killed off most of the MRSA it encountered. This thousand-year-old method consists of onion, garlic, wine, cow bile, and a feather. It was an early treatment for an eye infection.